NI election 2022: Why Northern Ireland's election is different

The candidates have largely been chosen, campaign posters have been printed and the countdown to 5 May is officially under way.

On that day, the next Northern Ireland Assembly election will take place.

As with any election, for the political parties doing battle there is much at stake.

But in Northern Ireland, it's not simply winner-takes-all once votes have been counted and the final seats declared.

Forming a government and deciding policy priorities are the traditional outcomes after elections, when parties have made promises to deliver on pledges.

But doing that is more complicated in Northern Ireland for one big reason: no party can govern alone.

There's no such thing as winning an outright majority or forming a "coalition of the willing", with like-minded parties.

That's different from how things usually work in other parts of the UK, but it was purposefully designed this way.

Often just referred to as Stormont, Northern Ireland's modern institutions were set up to ensure unionists and nationalists could share power equally, ending decades of conflict known as the Troubles.

It has operated like this since the first election to the devolved assembly took place in 1998.

There are 90 seats available in the assembly, the legislative chamber where laws are scrutinised and passed.

But forming the government at Stormont which proposes many of the laws is less straightforward.

It's a system known as mandatory coalition.

Basically, it means major parties cannot be excluded from government.

In practice, this sees parties with opposing political stances having to work together on everything from health to infrastructure and education.

Unionist parties favour continuing the union with Britain while nationalist parties support a united Ireland.

There is also a growing third bloc of non-aligned parties who, so far, have not taken a position on that issue.

After an election, those parties are meant to form the executive.

Similar to the cabinet at Westminster, it is the decision-making body for Northern Ireland and is often referred to as the government.

Parties are entitled to hold ministerial posts in the executive based on the number of seats they win in the election.

For most of the multi-party executive's lifespan, five parties have been entitled to positions.

During the election campaign, parties will still publish manifestos with differing priorities on what they want to do in a future government.

Stormont has powers to legislate on many areas including health, employment, education, agriculture and the environment, transport, culture, justice and policing.

If the parties entitled to form a government after an election do so, it means many pledges competing within a system where any significant policy needs approval from the whole executive.

Inevitably it also means other promises end up remaining long-term aspirations, stymied by opposing political perspectives.

But agreeing any policy first hinges on the return of a government after the election - and that has already been made trickier due to recent events.

The lead jobs in the executive - first minister and deputy first minister - are reserved for the largest party from the largest of the unionist/nationalist blocs and the largest party from the second largest of the blocs.

Despite their names, the two roles are joint, and one cannot hold office without the other.

Since 2003, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has been the largest party in the assembly, followed by nationalists Sinn Féin.

In February, the DUP withdrew Paul Givan as first minister in opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol.

It meant Sinn Fein's Michelle O'Neill lost her job as deputy first minister and that the executive could not take decisions because the first and deputy first ministers must chair all meetings of it.

Recent polls have also indicated that Sinn Fein could for the first time win the most seats and be entitled to the first minister role.

The DUP has refused to say whether it would agree to share power in this circumstance.

After the last assembly election in March 2017, there were three years of stalemate before the executive was re-established.

How long it takes this time and who wants to be part of it will factor into the debate as the parties pound the pavement for votes over the next six weeks.

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